CM Pema Khandu acts tough on illegal felling of trees in Tirap district

Our Correspondent

Itanagar: Chief Minister Pema Khandu on Wednesday informed that three wood-based industries functional in Longding district have been instructed to suspend functioning till verification of stock and relevant records are found to be genuine.

Responding to a question raised in the House by Congress MLA Wanglin Lowangdong on massive illegal felling of trees under the Borduria village reserve forest particularly in Bogapani, Naitong and New Paniduria in Tirap district, Khandu said that licenses of the three industries have been seized by the forest department.

“I will ask the department to investigate the matter on how the three industries were set-up violating the Supreme Court’s guidelines in running timber industries and appropriate action will be initiated against the officers if any lapses are found,” Khandu, who also holds the Environment & Forest portfolio, said.

The Chief Minister assured the House that he would ensure that the department would submit its report within ten days so that action could be taken against the officials.

Khandu added that the chief conservator of forest Deomali was instructed on January 29 and February 13 last to conduct an inspection and submit a report on illegal felling of trees.

“The CCF informed that the Range Forest Officer of Borduria had detected illegal timber during patrolling and Divisional Forest Officer of Khonsa submitted that no elephants and trucks were noted. However, fresh road clearing was detected in the Borduria forest range and the inspection team opined that the road could be used to transport illegal timber from Assam to the wood-based industries in the region,” Khandu said and added that investigation is on.

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